"Tristan?"
He didn't blink, didn't move, his mind a million miles away in another place and time when he had last worked with someone to learn how to control his Clann powers.
TRISTAN
Images I didn't understand at first f lashed through my mind, of myself and a big bear of a man with a thick silver beard standing in a yard at night.
Then I recognized him. The answers f lowed to me without my having to struggle for them.
Dad. We were standing in the backyard behind our house.
Okay, Dad said. So here's the basics of casting a spell. Every witch starts off at the beginner level of spell casting by saying a word and using a small hand gesture. This helps you focus and control when the spell is actually cast, until you learn how to discipline your mind. Someday, when you're ready, I'll teach you how to cast a spell even if you're tied up with your mouth taped shut, just by thinking the word and using your willpower. Eventually you'll learn to cast a spell without a word at all, just by thinking about the results you want to create. Like you do when you create fire or ground your energy.
The brief memory was like the strong wind Savannah had just whispered into life, blowing away the mental fog that had filled my head for months now. I remembered. Everything that had been lost to me came back in wave after wave of memory. I remembered Dad training me how to use magic...the vamp council abducting me and handcuffing me to a chair in their underground Paris headquarters to test Savannah's self-control...Mom expecting me to follow in Dad's footsteps to become the next Clann leader and how desperately I had wanted to play pro football someday instead and our endless family arguments about it...Dad's death...Mom's heartache turning into happiness as I finally took the stone throne as Clann leader...the pain that exploded in my chest as Gowin tried to rip out my heart through my back...and then waking up in Savannah's arms with only the memory of her smile to anchor me as everything else faded beneath the fog that had filled my head.
I remembered it all. But it was too much too fast, a thousand different memories and emotions swirling around me like a tornado trying to rip me into pieces. I couldn't breathe, couldn't control it.
I had to get away, get some air, find a way to sort through it all one memory and emotion at a time before I went insane.
CHAPTER 3
SAVANNAH
Tristan staggered, and I reached out for him. But he turned away, a choking tidal wave of shock and horror swamping him as memory after memory slammed into him from every direction, each one tied to and triggering the next, each one robbing his lungs of air or the ability to draw another breath.
"Tristan!" I took a step after him. He was getting his memories back, but they were returning too fast. No one should be hit with seventeen years' worth of memories all at once.
"Dad, the memories...they're all coming back." What should I do? Should I try to hold him, let him feel me there beside him so he would know he wasn't alone?
I reached out for Tristan again, but he brushed my hand away and stumbled toward the nearby ledge where he liked to go sometimes to sit and watch the sun set. My heart missed a beat. He was getting too close to the edge. He would survive the fall, according to Dad. But I still didn't want to see him hurt.
"Let him go. He will need some time and space to work through them on his own."
I held my breath until Tristan found the large stone he usually sat on. His hands fumbled over its surface, guiding him as he sank down onto the rock.
"Are you sure he should be alone right now?"
"Yes, I am sure. Some things you cannot save him from."
I hated the idea of Tristan having to deal with the return of his memories alone. Especially the memory of his father's death, which had happened just a week before Tristan had nearly died and I'd had to turn him in order to keep him alive.
But I followed Dad's suggestion, staying when I wanted to follow, watching when I wanted to actively help in some way. After a moment of silence, I realized Dad was actually smiling.
"You can't possibly be happy about this," I snapped. "Tristan's hurting. I know you're not that callous."
"I do not enjoy his mental pain, no. But the return of his memories means he will quickly regain all his former selfcontrol and discipline. The one advantage of his being who he was within the Clann is that he should have had plenty of previous training in these areas. Otherwise he never would have been able to keep his infamous Coleman Clann abilities contained in public. And if he could contain those abilities..."
"Then he can control his vamp instincts, too," I finished for him without looking away from the slump of Tristan's shoulders. He'd always had the best posture, holding his shoulders back, unashamed that his six-foot-plus height made him taller than most.
"Correct. Which means our days of training here on this mountain are at an end, and we must prepare to take him back to Jacksonville."
"Jacksonville?" I hissed, finally able to look at my dad. "Are you crazy? We can't go back there!"
"We must. The council demands it."
"The council..." I sputtered. "You've got to be kidding. They can't possibly want us to go back into Clann territory."
"But they do. They know you and Tristan can read the descendants' thoughts."
And then it sank in. I groaned. "No. No way. Tristan and I are not going to spy for the council."
Dad stared at me, his silver eyes darkening to a slate-gray. "You must. The council demands it."
I stared back at him with one eyebrow raised. We both knew how much I loved being told what to do by the council.
He sighed. "Let me rephrase. Caravass and the other council members would greatly appreciate it if you two would consider going back to Jacksonville and keeping us apprised of any alarming developments within the Clann. They only wish to maintain peace with the Clann, nothing more."
I leaned in closer. "Tristan is just now getting his memories back, including the ones about his family. And now the council wants him to go spy on them?"
"They cast him out of the Clann."
"Because they had to! He's a vampire now. They couldn't let a vamp be a member." Wasn't it in the Clann laws or something? They sure seemed to have some rule about descendants and vamps dating, considering they'd cast out my mother for marrying my father, and then cast out my grandmother for failing to stop that union.